s2member Pro is a disappointment

Hello,

I am sorry to say but I purchased s2member Pro with the expectation that it would meet my fairly basic membership site needs. Unfortunately it falls short in many respects and I would like a refund.

My issues are as follows:

1. You require that I design a separate page for each level of membership, with no solution to have the potential client select their membership level from the checkout page. I think this is a pretty basic feature that should be included in a pro product.

2. My members cannot manage their payment profiles from my site. They have to login to paypal to cancel or see their payment status. Really?

3. After trying with three different WordPress themes and deactivating all my plugins for potential conflicts, the pro forms still look terrible and very amateur. I know these were coded with a standard WordPress theme in mind and they have the potential to look great. But they don’t and considering this is one of the primary reasons I purchased the pro upgrade, I am not going to hire a developer to re-code the forms.

Sorry, but I would like my money back.

Regards,
Jason

Hello Jason,

1. You require that I design a separate page for each level of membership, with no solution to have the potential client select their membership level from the checkout page. I think this is a pretty basic feature that should be included in a pro product.

What you’re looking is like a dropdown sort of feature? Where the user would use 1 pro-form for all the different levels? In addition to one pro-form for each level of course.

2. My members cannot manage their payment profiles from my site. They have to login to paypal to cancel or see their payment status. Really?

s2Member offers modification pro-forms/buttons and cancellation pro-forms/buttons. Is this what you’re looking for? Or were you looking for a more advanced UI for all the payments the user has made etc.?

3. After trying with three different WordPress themes and deactivating all my plugins for potential conflicts, the pro forms still look terrible and very amateur. I know these were coded with a standard WordPress theme in mind and they have the potential to look great. But they don’t and considering this is one of the primary reasons I purchased the pro upgrade, I am not going to hire a developer to re-code the forms.

What’s wrong about them? Do they look wrong? Is there anything abnormal about them?

If what you require is a more special or better looking pro-form then you will need to code it yourself or hire someone I’m afraid. As it stands, they’re just basic forms that present the fields in a simple manner.

– Eduan

Hi Eduan,

What you’re looking is like a dropdown sort of feature? Where the user would use 1 pro-form for all the different levels? In addition to one pro-form for each level of course.

Yes, a dropdown. My members should be able to pick a plan and register from 1 page.

s2Member offers modification pro-forms/buttons and cancellation pro-forms/buttons. Is this what you’re looking for? Or were you looking for a more advanced UI for all the payments the user has made etc.?

A more advanced UI.

If what you require is a more special or better looking pro-form then you will need to code it yourself or hire someone I’m afraid. As it stands, they’re just basic forms that present the fields in a simple manner.

Exactly. The forms are very amateur looking and considering you call them pro forms and charge for the upgrade it is deceiving.

Based on your reply, I’m guessing I’ve just wasted my money on your product.

Yes, a dropdown. My members should be able to pick a plan and register from 1 page.

I see, while this is pretty easy with the buttons (just a little bit of code) it would require a more advanced approach with the pro-forms, not all that advanced in comparison though. You will have to modify the pro-form’s template though.

A more advanced UI.

I see. I’ll tell this to Jason so that he can consider it. Not sure if it’s gonna get implemented in the next generation of s2Member though, so I’ll also ask him. :)

Exactly. The forms are very amateur looking and considering you call them pro forms and charge for the upgrade it is deceiving.

I see, well the pro-forms are designed to be compatible with lots of themes, plugins and most importantly, devices. So they can’t get too advanced or the theme may mess it up, or another plugin could, or it may not even be compatible with other devices (like mobile devices).

Based on your reply, I’m guessing I’ve just wasted my money on your product.

I guess so. :/
However, I don’t think these reasons make a refund valid. Of course, the decision is up to Jason in the end. Here are the refund terms and policy:
s2Member® » Terms » Refund Policy

Or, if the Product fails to perform basic functions…

I purchased it 3 days ago, and have already uninstalled the plugin, having spent the majority of those 3 days trying to get it to work as I had hoped.

Very disappointed and feeling slightly ripped off. :/

Thanks for your inquiry. ~ We appreciate your patience :-)

My issues are as follows:

1. You require that I design a separate page for each level of membership, with no solution to have the potential client select their membership level from the checkout page. I think this is a pretty basic feature that should be included in a pro product.

We intentionally leave this decision up to you, to provide greater flexibility for site owners. If you want to provide a selection to potential customers, this is what your s2Member® Membership Options Page is for. This is where most site owners will list all available purchase options.

If you are using s2Member® Pro, you can generate Pro Forms for each of your different payment options and link those up with whatever UI that you produce in a WordPress® Post or Page for your customers. Every site owner has a different approach to this, and your UI for prices/options might be different from others.

I will accept a default selection system implemented by
s2Member® as a feature request though. I can see where it would be helpful.

2. My members cannot manage their payment profiles from my site. They have to login to paypal to cancel or see their payment status. Really?

Only if a customer previously paid you through a PayPal “Standard Subscription” Button and not through a Pro Form via on-site credit card processing or through PayPal Express Checkout (i.e. you mix Buttons together with Pro Forms). This is a limitation in the PayPal® API. PayPal Standard Subscriptions (because these are NOT Recurring Profiles generated through the PayPal Pro API); cannot be cancelled through the PayPal Pro API. You must log into your PayPal account and cancel these manually; or the customer can do this from their PayPal account also.

If you process all credit cards on-site and/or accept PayPal® through a Pro Form, this is not the case at all. Customers may cancel future billing, among other things, directly through s2Member® Pro Forms. See: Knowledge Base » s2Member® Pro Forms

Even in cases where a PayPal® Standard “Subscription” was used, s2Member® Pro Forms provide functionality and details to these customers. For instance, if a customer would like to cancel future billing, but their Billing Profile is tied to a PayPal® Standard “Subscription”, Pro Forms will ask the customer to log into their PayPal account to cancel future charges.

3. After trying with three different WordPress themes and deactivating all my plugins for potential conflicts, the pro forms still look terrible and very amateur. I know these were coded with a standard WordPress theme in mind and they have the potential to look great. But they don’t and considering this is one of the primary reasons I purchased the pro upgrade, I am not going to hire a developer to re-code the forms.

I will accept this as a gripe. However, please explain to me how s2Member® should handle it when you introduce a Pro Form into a site where there is additional CSS applied by your theme which modifies the default appearance?

s2Member® Pro comes with basic structural styling that works with most WordPress® themes. However, we can’t accommodate every possible scenario. Nor would we want to really. If we forced a certain appearance across all installations of s2Member® Pro, this will remove everyone’s ability to design their overall look n’ feel; which many site owners feel is important.

See: Modifying/Customizing s2Member® Pro Forms

A default Pro Form looks quite generic, yet still professional. See also (Pro Screenshots).

Default s2Member® Pro Form (for Checkout)

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Sorry, but I would like my money back.

Refund request denied (for now).

This is your very first support ticket after having purchased the software. Please work with us to resolve and/or better understand the functionality of the software first.

We have a no-refund policy on all non-tangible, digital items. We will consider special cases (i.e. if the product has failed to perform as advertised); but this occurs VERY rarely. I’m not seeing any violation like that here. Please read through our Refund Policy. If you can show us that s2Member® was advertised to handle something that it’s failing to do, and all efforts to resolve that issue here in the forums fail, we will consider this again for you.

See: s2Member® » Terms » Refund Policy

To Jason (the Customer)
This is Jason – another customer, and this is completely unsolicited – and it is with much respect and empathy –

I would strongly consider you spend some time with this plugin – – although it sounds like you don not have time..and it sounds like you have already made up your mind. – while it was a rocky start for me too, I realized that 1 – I wasn;’t really a programmer or a web designer, and 2 – I was unfamiliar with s2members. Part of the problem was i was in a hurry (my failure to plan was everyone else’s emergency (big ego without realizing it – self importance under pressure – ‘I’ had to …)to get something done, and expected the tool to do the job for me, as opposed to invest in learning how to use the tool and do the job myself.

Everything has limitations – but the simple side of s2 doesnt represent what is possible – it is more capable than i know what to do with – but i do know i would rather design a project around something more extensible and have the option to call other experts in to program beyond my capabilites then to not have the option – a lot of other systems are closed boxes,

Every time i think there is something better i try it and i am continually dissappinted with the claims they make and then i get to the fine print after investing effort to find myself at a dead end. then come back to the same solid set of plugins and tools – and s2 is one of them…and the only thing better than s2 is more s2…

It is as you identified function before form in the sense that there are not a lot of pretty icons, but it is well laid out, and comprehensive.

the support is on the higher end of the spectrum – Lead developers moderating forums daily and responding to me regularly – if i run into something i dont understand i fire off a question and do a bit of reserch and often i get a response – very shortly

1. You require that I design a separate page for each level of membership, with no solution to have the potential client select their membership level from the checkout page. I think this is a pretty basic feature that should be included in a pro product.

I don’t know how to respond to your concerns – at first glance i think wow, he doesn’t know about the shortcodes and custom capabilities – i cannot even get past your first sentence – i just set up a page an hour ago that reconfigures itself inline completely based on the role of use that shows up – s2if and s2get are beautiful things. – 10 levels of users…… I think you tried to protect pages with levels alone – i have some pages that are protected with with 12 custom capabilities and i have roles that have multiple capabitlies – so someone can go to a page as a role with a different capabitliy set than another user with the same level and see a completely different thing and be allowed to acces using different functions on the same page – i have trouble not putting too much on one page – seems opposite to your eperience of feeling very limited…. and i can make different level see the same things with similar capabitlies –

iwish i could help you more but i am back to designing sites – flooded with work actually and i barely know what i am doing and somehow i am getting the job done and again it is not because i love computers… – – PS very little coding – i try to avoid it – i have found that by combining s2members with gravity forms i can get around just about anything

Good luck with your endeavors….you sound as frusttrated as every programmer has ever gotten on one time or anothe rin their life…

i’ll leave you with the mantra i got from my commodore vic 20 at christmas when i was a litlle kid – we popped the (cassette) tape in to run it, on comes the computer – it introduces itself this way
“Hi, I am a Commodore Vic – 20, a computer. I do not make mistakes. You make the mistakes. I can only repeat them.”

at the time i couldn’t believe living in a rough area of town as a small kid, that this little box had the nerve to talk smack on first introductions although it made a valid point…

@ Jason eH Thank you for the KUDOS :-)